Miria Harris
Miria Harris is a critically-acclaimed, award-winning landscape designer. Her studio is based in London, where it works on a wide range of public and residential projects across the UK and internationally. She is currently working on her own garden, bringing her distinctive style and thoughtful approach to her personal space.
We met with Miria to talk about her creative process, the inspiration behind her work, and how her tokyobike fits into everyday life.
“Cycling has never just been about moving around - it’s the chance to step back, to move and think.”
Q. Tell us a bit about what you do and what inspires your work?
I’m a landscape designer, so the obvious and predictable answer to the question of what inspires me, is to say nature. There are lots of things that inspire me but nature is key. In saying this though, I’m not just talking about plants and wildlife, it’s more than that.
Figuring out the individual human nature of my clients is always the starting point in my work, questioning how spaces are inhabited, our relationship to them, how we move between them - what we might do or not do in them. It is about the whole landscape of life, in which a garden, an archetypal natural space, can be such an enriching part.
Q. Where's home and what are the places and spaces that make you happy?
Home is in north east London where I’ve lived for nearly 25 years. The longest time I’ve lived anywhere. Almost half my lifetime. I’ve watched it change a huge amount over the years, with my old haunts evolving multiple times. My studio is actually in the same area as where I used to party in my late teens - down from the midlands to stay with older friends who had already moved to the capital. Very different it was then.
Some things change but still, in a way, stay the same. Columbia Road and its flower market remains a happy place for me, it’s where I used to hang out with my husband when we first met and it is where his pub The Marksman is now located - it’s a soulful place, rich with history.
“I question how spaces are inhabited, our relationship to them, and what we might do - or not do - in them.”
Q. What does cycling mean for you and where do like to ride?
I’ve always cycled around London - I love the freedom it offers. When I was studying contemporary art and curating at Goldsmiths in the early noughties I’d make the commute from south west to south east in rain or shine, always with a change of clothes, a pair of heels for a private view and full waterproof clothes for the journey back home from wherever I ended up.
But cycling has never just been about moving around, it is the opportunity it affords to step back from doing stuff, from reading emails or answering calls, to just move and think. My favourite route is my journey to work - through London Fields and de Beauvoir (where I first lived in east London) - those 25 minutes on my bike set me up, they get me ready for the day ahead.
“It is about the whole landscape of life, in which a garden can be such an enriching part.”
We’re hoping to visit Miria again in spring, when her garden starts to take shape.
The garden tools that Miria turns to...